Came across a piece of history on Ebay today.

[John Schmidt]

My home town, Ft. Dodge, Iowa, is the place the Coats Iron Tireman originated. While perusing Ebay for what's available in manual tire changers, I ran across this listing. Really brought back some very nice memories, I dated the granddaughter of the man that created the Iron Tireman way back when. That gal was the apple of his eye, at the time she drove a Jeepster which I believe was made by Willys-Overland(see the first link below). He suggested it needed more "giddyup" as he put it, so took her keys and the car disappeared for a couple weeks. Next time she drove it to school, it just sounded different so she let me flip up the hood. There sat a nice shiney Olds V-8 backed with an equally effective hydramatic tranny. We had a lot of fun in that Jeepster of hers, nobody in town could touch it which made grandpa happy. As for a tire changer, I can't really justify it for as little as I'd use it.

https://www.google.com/search?q=jeepster&biw=1284&bih=638&tbm=isch&imgil=DsIUerGRCIyipM%253A%253BgzjscaQNK1jhHM%253Bhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fen.wikipedia.org%25252Fwiki%25252FWillys-Overland_Jeepster&source=iu&pf=m&fir=DsIUerGRCIyipM%253A%252CgzjscaQNK1jhHM%252C_&usg=__ecrh8MJRFwv8LGImCdPdEj5r2Zo%3D&ved=0ahUKEwjKi7fJwP3JAhWKdj4KHey8ATcQyjcIJQ&ei=452AVoqOE4rt-QHs-Ya4Aw#imgrc=DsIUerGRCIyipM%3A&usg=__ecrh8MJRFwv8LGImCdPdEj5r2Zo%3D

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-COATS-IRON-TIREMAN-Manual-Tire-Changer-Complete-Works-PICK-UP-ONLY-/141854530938?hash=item2107305d7a:g:c2YAAOSwJcZWcZfD&item=141854530938&vxp=mtr

[da prez]

John , I changed many a tire on one of those machines  when I worked at an old garage. There was an outside lift.
 Weather dictated what we could do. I was about 8 years old when  I started there.  We did most everything  needed to keep cars running.

                       Da prez

[Grumpy]

Never had one of those, but had a 1951 Jeep station wagon, 4wd. Had a blast with that for quite a few years.

[MP]

Never used one, but sure remember them in tire shops years ago.

[dragonslayer]

When I started my first full time job after High school I worked for Foreign Car Garage and worked on just about anything from vw to rolls.In this garage there was no such thing as a tire changing machine.EVERYTING was done on the floor by hand.We where the only place in town that would change tires on wire wheels so I did a lot of those so doing my own tires now is no big deal.This was done back in 68/69.Ok so i'm old.Want to have some fun ,try changing a tube tire on a 17" wire wheel without scratching it.Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.  Ride Safe.

[Ken Tarver]

John
I also saw that old changer on eBay yesterday....was looking again as to what is available for changers. Would have liked to got a pneumatic changer, but shop space & $$ made that decision. I understand not justifying the purchase. I thought about it for a pretty long time before the purchase. We local GW chapter guys had discussed several times at breakfast about going in together and getting a changer, but no one would ever step up and say "let's do it". So about a year later I just bought it myself. I change most everyone's tires in the GW chapter. Tell them no on paying, but they all throw down 20-40 bucks on the work bench. The hard part about mounting the tires.....is when the guys try to help.

Ken

[hubcapsc]

Speaking of tire tools...

1800 wheels are painted black. I had to do some touch up work with a
rattle can when I changed my tire the other day...

Anyone ever tried to use these "plastic" tire irons?



-Mike